Farming in many parts of the dry land wheat growing areas of the world, especially in more technically advanced regions, is moving towards less and less tillage prior to seeding. Seeding directly into untilled fields is becoming quite common and gaining in popularity as our implements can ensure seed and nitrogen fertilizer separation while seeding.
There are many benefits from reducing tillage prior to seeding including reduced soil erosion, better moisture conservation and reduced weed growth. This results in reduced operating cost, better seed germination and crop establishment.
Seeding implements which can apply seed and fertilizer in one pass are gaining in popularity, particularly due to the high cost of labour in farming. Examples of such implements include air hoe drills and cultivators with dual shoot boots and air hoe drills and cultivators with mid row fertilizer banding coulters. A challenge for farm equipment designers is to create machines that are capable of placing any and all of the necessary crop production agents, i.e. generally seed and fertilizer but also possibly seed and fertilizer coatings, into the soil while not adversely affecting the opportunity for good crop germination, emergence and establishment. A highly desirable characteristic of the equipment that performs the placement of the products of good crop production is minimal soil disturbance. Another is precise seed placement. A third is good covering of the seed with soil prior to packing. Yet another is adequate compaction of the soil around the seed to ensure good seed to soil contact.
Present day seeding implements generally have two types of ground opening systems. These are hoe or disk systems. Some seeding units combine both systems.
A multitude of coulter disk equipped seeding implements have been manufactured that can adequately perform the seeding function in certain soil conditions. However, many have failed to perform adequately over a wide range of soil conditions. Some are expensive to purchase, onerous to maintain and very time consuming to adjust for different soil penetration depths. Thus, there is a need to provide an implement which includes a combination of elements, proven effective in producing good crop emergence and establishment in a broad range of conditions with low soil disturbance. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a device which is less expensive to produce and more operator friendly to both operate and maintain.